I love the little talk that Sasha gives afterwards. It is like he understands that Raz is not malicious, he just wants to leave a lasting impression on Raz giving that Raz strongly looks up to Sasha.
the only experiences raz had with psychonaut missions involved him going into the minds of lunatics in an attempt to make his way through an asylum. it was all made up as he went along, and he decided to help the inmates/villains rather than harm them. the only minds that raz has ever really known are the ones in need of "fixing". i think the hollis level fucked up because he got too direct of a power for changing minds. he went from fighting their demons to making immediate mental changes. comparing it to medicine, i would say that rasputin was trying to measure nanograms of ultra concentrated medicine, rather than giving therapy.
I agree bluespirit. It seems like until he went to whispering rock he didn't have any social experience outside of his family. But yeah he really messed up bad here. I think it is why even though we have the platforming mechanic from mental connections in other worlds they dont have thoughts because ehe actively is trying not to do it again.
@Bluespirit that runs the risk of becomming a ubisoft tower. Wanna get further into the memory? Gotta climb the to- i mean... make the mental connection. It is too overpowered of a concept to be put in the game as something interns can learn. The power to rewrite a mind to suit your needs/desires should be left to either the top brass, or the part of the organization that keeps the psychonauts a secret.
@@GamingUniversityUoG I didn't think about that. I always wondered why we never see Raz try to make connections in other minds like he did Hollis's. Even insignificant changes like, linking Socks and sandles, or cilantro with clean/disgust would have been neat to see every so often in other minds. But at the same time, that power was something Raz had messed with and because of that, he screwed up Hollis's mind so badly he had to go in and fix his mistake. That probably caused, a small amount of trauma to Raz, so Raz is actively suppressing that side of the power like how his mind created the "water curse" as a way for him to, in the words of Granny Nona "STAY AWAY FROM THE WATER!!!". All the times Granny Nona shouted that phrase, or even just mentioned the curse, probably just added to Raz's subconscious anxiety, for lack of better term, and thus, the water hand was created.)
I really like the speech Hollis gives about how the Psychonauts' role is to 'help people fight their own demons', because it mirrors the role of real life therapists.
Seriously Psyconauts are just therapists cranked up to 11! Also I wonder how a Psyconaut would interact with the mindscape of someone who is nerodivergent? Would they have to be more flexible? Well I know Raz would certainly be up to that challenge.
While Sasha was understandably upset over Razputin's irresponsible misuse of mental connection, he seems to also understand that not only does Raz feel truly remorseful about the whole thing, he can somewhat understand how easily it can be to misuse one's psychic abilities like He did when he read his father's lewd memories of his late mother
It didn't occur to me on my first playthrough but it's amazing that Raz was even able to do this in the first place. Raz didn't even know how to make mental connections before entering Holis's mind and, as a fully trained Psychonaut, you would think Holis would know how to protect her mind from that kind of manipulation. In fact, you'd think she would be even more on guard than usual seeing as she literally had a bunch of kids running around inside her head.
She probably underestimated their capacity. Frankly I dont think the others would have done anything since they wanted to pin it on Raz. But I always questioned WHY he knows so much at 10 years old. Only thing I can figure is he reads True Psychic Tales so much he picked up a lot of stuff through osmosis.
@@GamingUniversityUoG Raz seems to have different blind spots, habits, and intuition than the other named psychics. Most/all of the other pscychics had years of live, face-to-face demonstrations from uncloseted psychics to learn from-psychic-practicing family, friends, a psychic institution(s). Raz only had his books, maybe word of mouth, maybe his closeted sister, and his own secret experimentations to learn from until he ran away from his family. So, Raz had less references to compare his methods to and results to, less supervision and tradition manipulating how he experimented and practiced, fewer pressures defining what methods/results were “correct” or “appropriate” or generally intuitive or possible or “normal.” And he has a unique background-high athletics mixed with showmanship-where as most/all the other named psychics have backgrounds involving less demanding athletics, less showmanship, or no athletics or showmanship at all. All that at play, of course Raz first attempt at mental connection involved jumping into the cloud as if it was a swing bar, potentially putting his mental-body in harms way. He wasn’t taught he couldn’t or shouldn’t try that. High risk, potentially high rewards, potentially big problems, potentially new discovery and innovation since few people take high risks. Maybe his technique of doing mental connection was more invasive or something than the technique Holis had learned, than the technique standardized. Thus, Holis couldn’t account for what Raz was capable of: it was her habit to assume he would use a technique similar to hers or other trainees.
@@AlwaysAmSam That makes sense, he's literally forcing his mental projection into her thoughts. That's got to be a bit more potent than manipulating them remotely.
@@GamingUniversityUoG Welp, Raz's brain IS one in a million, allegedly 🤔 He has shown at every turn since the first game to be abnormally gifted compared to most. Plus, without getting into spoilers, he DO got pedigree!
@@GamingUniversityUoG that definitely could be a part of it. He’s totally a psychic geek. It’s been a while since I have played but I feel like more than one character in the series has made a comment about his natural talent so that could also be why things come easily to him. There’s also his extensive acrobatic training that influences the way he uses his powers. I think it may have been hinted at somewhere that Raz’s use of mental connections works that way because it suits his acrobatic style better. But because of the way he uses that technique he was able to access parts of Agent Forsyth’s mind that was off limits to the other interns. (Assuming the others couldn’t just levitate up there).
It’s important to note, that while Raz is changing Hollis’ Mental Connections/Associations between specific thoughts, small changes to the links for Death and Money don’t necessarily cause the “brainstorm” revision of Hollis’ world view, suggesting that elsewhere, these links already exist, but not at the same priority per se. It is when Raz makes the non-native connection of Money=Risk that the damage is truly done. Part two actually should be an interesting look, tangentially, at treating Addiction.
That's my plan. I had a comment during the stream of this game about how the technique they used in game to cure her issue is a real technique on testing gambling addiction.
I don't know about that; all of the games in hot streak were rigged against her. With what we know of her history, I think she worked hard and diligently, but kept suffering from bad luck, building an inherent distrust of it. We do know she's fixated on money though; connecting risk with money lead her to pursue risk as she would money. Tldr, I think before her gambling addiction, she was addicted to work.
@@billlupin8345 That's a big one as well. She felt like she couldn't accept help from others managing the Psychonauts despite how much it was stressing her, kept her distress about it deep inside, but ultimately felt like her efforts were completely in vain.
I look at it more like all these area's we will discuss in part 2 are bad ideas she has had for a long time. With the new way of thinking she filtered the ideas through the lens of gambling.
I think it’s worth noting that of all the mental connections you can make in that level, the connection from ‘risk’ to ‘money’ is absurdly long and quite literally requires that you bypass all the other ideas using a very winding route to be made. In other words, there’s no way that connection would be made naturally.
At least Hollis was fixed without too many negative consequences. I love this level in particular for showing us how fragile a human mind is and that Raz has been playing with fire for two+ games before realising himself, and even the players come to understand the magnitude of the troubles he just avoided.
It really is a good thing that Raz didn't know about mental connections in the first game. Not only could he have seriously harmed the patients of the asylum, he could have easily done irreparable damage to both Oleander and himself in the Meat Circus.
I liked this level because it felt the closest to psychonauts 1 in tone and design(this and Hot Streak) when I first saw the game. I gradually came around to liking the other ones, but HotStreak had so much of the humor and vibe of the original that it made me nostalgic, despite only learning about the series in 2019.
@@derpfluidvariant0916 Same here though. This and Comptons Cookoff had so many Psychonauts 1 vibes. The rest was just... there. I mean they weren't bad, but they weren't that freaky either. Like, the storytelling and the levels were just too soft. Until the last one that is, that one was freaky. And almost gave someone ptsd flashbacks to Psychonauts 1 because of that ONE section ;-;
@@Adeyum64 definitely. Psychonauts 1 drew me in with the amount of experimenting they did with level design. There were a lot of areas in 2 that just felt like a Mario level, as opposed to the inside of someone's head.
i fully agree! especially because when he messes up with boyd, it doesn’t wind up really effecting him. with hollis, raz gets to fully see what messing around with someone’s mind can REALLY do, and how dangerous it can be for everyone involved
i really like that sasha gave raz a talk to and even said that he doesnt thing the punishment/scalding hollis gave was enough, we often see protags do somthing really bad or fuck up for "noble" reasons and fix the problem they caused and it all just gets brushed aside wit hthe protag having learned nothing. hollis letting rax of lightly makes sense as she would of seen what raz did being near identical to what she did, it wasnt done out of malice but out of a misguided attempt to change to somthing. she was pissed but understanding. I also really like that sasha didnt reem raz for it, he didnt speak to him like a child or at least it didnt seem that way to me, he spoke to raz as senior co-worker would to a new co-worker, close to but not quite equal if that makes sense
Honestly I love how this mind is basically teaching raz the lesson he should have learned in torny towers, messing with a mind for personal gain no matter how good your intentions are , leads to trouble , boyd is the best example ans while his situation ended well with him finally expelling the figments crated from his paranoia and oleander, ( although its never properly stated why this happens ) and regaining a bit of his sanity back, raz never faced direct consequences for this as it all turned out well in the end, hollis on the other hand greatly effects raz and from this point on in the game, not only does raz ask permission to enter minds but always consults the owner of a mind before he does any meddling (with the exception of *spoiler* but that was a very spacial case )
I think Oleander designed the manipulations he placed into Boyd to purge themselves after he finished his task, so that should any Psychonauts examine him after the fact, there wouldn't be any obvious evidence left of tampering.
Oddly enough, Boyd would still be a special case because he would have to enter his mind to figure out a way to convince Boyd to open the gate and Boyd would almost certainly never grant him permission.
I always thought the boyd thing might be intentional. Coach oleander wouldn't want a direct link like Boyd after being forced to cut and run, so if he tied Boyd's memories of him and the milk man persona together, after already making both so heavily disconnected from the rest of Boy'd mindscape, by cutting it free and somehow expelling these ideas and memories from Boyd, through a likely dangerous and invasive procedure, the last primary link would be severed. And hey, if Boyd doesn't survive... Well, the link is gone either way.
One thing I find hilarious that Raz is literally able to do what my friends called mental acrobatics. I'm not sure if it's an actual term but it's basically the joke how when things are complicated you have to really stretcher your mind or perception to get an understanding for the bigger picture or to figure out why a person is just "like that" since without the details it just turns into a lot of speculation. Lawyers for instance are usually trained in this because not only do they have to understand the laws AND situation they're dealing with but also know how to manipulate a crowd to make others see it too. But the truth is, it's just an interpretation because the opposing lawyer may also understand that same law but will have to argue it not just to the courtroom how *their* perception of the wording and situation actually work differently than the first one is trying to sell them. And sometimes that can rattle the first one if the second was able to not only dispute it, but maybe even get under their opponent's skin. In other words sometimes we joke about the associative process and how going from point A to point B doesn't make sense but must take some mental acrobatics to jump to that conclusion. But again, this is something most people are trained to do. Hollis is reasonably underestimating Raz because most kids don't have that kind of capability. Kids his age are often still developing these concepts of their own mental workings and understanding how the world works so she wouldn't expect any of the interns to even be able to make the first jump, let alone redirect the trains of thought. It's interesting too that even if Raz is more advanced in his ability to follow someone's train of thought because he can do these mental acrobatics, his understanding isn't very well developed because again that may be a maturity thing. He's still developing those social skills, and considering his upbringing, he may be a little stunted in that department to begin with. But he's learning and that's the important thing. He's still at an age where learning is easy because of mental flexibility.
Oh I've grown up around enough lawyers to know mental gymnastics. I find it funny as hell when my 6 year old nephew pulls those tricks. Mind always going along random paths but more often than not he's not wrong lol.
You might want to relabel this episode "Hollis' Classroom" since that's the true name of this mental world. Also, when we eventually get to Agent Cruller, you might want to make a short prologue video covering the five versions of Ford we first meet in Psychonauts 1. I've already come up with a title for it. How does "The Five Faces of Ford Cruller" sound to you?
I thought the in game name for this one was what I put? Into the journal that's what they have. Unless I'm crazy and my memory is worse than I thought.
@@GamingUniversityUoG No. I double checked the Psychonauts Wiki to make sure. Hollis' Mind is separated into two different levels, before and after Raz's mediling. It's the same situation, more or less, with Ford's Fractured Mind.
Raz only had practical mental training before this so he really didn’t know any better prior. After all, the Thorny Towers inmates never gave him permission except for Fred who explicitly asked for his help. And the Whispering Rock instructors let him into their minds anyway as part of their lessons. Nobody taught Raz it wasn’t kosher to start messing around with someone’s thoughts the way he did in Hollis’ mind.
I didn't expect to enjoy Hollis as much as would going into Psychonauts 2, but she ended up being my favourite (non-psychic 6) character introduced in the game. I could easily relate to the feeling of burnout, and stress placed upon herself as the second generation of the Psychonauts. That feeling being between two generation that seem like everything goes great for them while she has to take the brunt of the managerial work. That and her learning from her own mistakes, by being a bit easier on Raz I really enjoyed, as you could easily tell where they were coming from indirectly altering people to help them, but the advice that people have to change themselves is a valuable lesson to learn. Either way it was a great introduction to such a great game in a very unique method (i.e. the double mind), and you explored it in a very solid way. Can't wait to see what you do next. Keep up the great work, and have a nice day.
She fully understood the thinking that went into Raz's decision. She had been there before. And yeah I quit like Hollis. I know a lot of people who are rough around the edges but are the people you want on your side in a crisis. She reminded me of them.
Based on Raz's improper execution of Mental Connection, do you think that his execution of PSI Powers is fundamentally different from other peoples' because of his acrobat background? With some it's harder to argue this because a PSI Blast doesn't involve too much physical movement, for example, but with Levitation he bounces around on the thoughts like he's back to performing in the circus. I think that's the point, but I haven't heard it explicitly stated anywhere.
With his idle animation on the levitation ball being a balancing act, I can see how his style is influenced by his acrobatics. In the first game all the other campers did the same thing though.
One thing I noticed that Psychonauts does differently with its Memory Vaults is they're a lot more integrated into the Main Story than providing additional backstory for the minds to help you better understand the Mental Worlds and brains. You can go through the Mental Worlds in 2 and still get the Backstories from the Main plotline to the point where it feels like searching for the vaults feels like retreading the information you already learned in playing through the mind the first time on occasion. Not always but even still. There's another Point I have about the majority of the Memory Vaults in 2 but that will only be relevant for a later mind...
It's crazy how much Psychonauts has done for me in the past couple of months, I also must say that your videos have magnified that as well. The amount of insight you provide to these psychological phenomena has helped me out a lot with changing myself for the better. So I gotta say, keep it up!
Funny, I recently finally picked up and finished Psychonauts 2 so this was great timing. Fun game, the levels look gorgeous and creative. I also adore the drastic improvements to combat, where you actually gotta think out the fights (Until you got enough health to just tank literally everything lmao) I think the only thing that I was really disappointed by is there is less psychological theming to the levels, only a connection to the character's history. No longer are levels like the Milkman Conspiracy with the whole schizophrenic symbolism, or Gloria and the lights that controlled her bipolar mood swings. I suppose it does make sense since like most of the heads you enter in 2 are considerably more stable than the first one, and fits with the levels of the more stable individuals in the first game of Milla only having the one dark section tucked away but all in all perfectly stable or Sasha whose brain only goes out of whack due to your meddling, and being simply so high strung even in his mental world that it takes one jammed cog for the whole machine to blow at the seams. It's less wrangling together a mentally unstable mind, but more emotionally mending the person with 2 I think the closest 2 got to the more mental themed well.. themes I craved was Compton's Cookoff. With how fitting being easily over stimulated by sound and going into a panic attack from it translates to the high stakes high pressure gameshow environment, the too much sound being like boo's of an upset crowd. But other than that, it didn't quite really hit that specific quality that makes psychonauts so special. I feel a little sad about that but.. it's still a solid and amazing game, like shit I enjoyed it enough I 100% it just like I did with 1. I just hope that if there is a third installment, and who knows if that's gonna happen or nah since they kinda left it at a pleasing close but open ended for more exploration, that they do have those levels that are just a little more special in the way only psychonauts can be
There is also Bob Zanotto's brain that is about alcoholism and depression, Hollis' brain which is about gambling addiction (and probably anxiety as well, for the first level concerning her brain), Helmut's brain that is about overstimulation, panic and synaesthesia and Gristol's brain which is about narcissism. Ford's brain (technically the non-replayable section with the mirror pieces flying around) is also a hint to a mental condition, although I can't remember which. And the enemies this time also have much richer mental themes. The Panic Attack is a notable one. Long story short, the mental themes have been preserved in the second installment as well
@@bubbadoo10 Nah man, I feel the same. The game just handles them a bit too soft, like it doesn't make it that interesting to explore. Funny enough, Compton's Cookoff is also the one that absolutely sticked out for me. It just has that ultra satirical vibe the first game had, and that's what was missing most of the time in the second game. It also felt weird, that Raz always asked them if they can fix their shits. I mean, it certainly works for the professional psychonauts, but there is no way that this tactic will EVER work on foreigners. I mean, people with mental problems will protect their thoughts at any cost. Like Boyd and Gloria. So how are they going to change that in Psychonauts 3 someday?
@@Adeyum64 Yeah I agree that it does feel a little too soft. It's more of a light theming then a central theming a lot of the time it feels like. That other point though, to be fair since he is dealing with professional psychonauts I think asking is pretty much a necessity. Since unlike Boyd and Gloria, they know when someone has hopped into their mind and can probably easily kick out someone whose in there without their permission. (With the exception of Bob since that one he did intrude without asking but the alcohol and sheer apathy to everything kinda leaves him not able to just kick 'em out even if he didn't really want Raz rooting around in his brain.)
@@bubbadoo10 True that. That's why also mentioned, why it still makes some sense for professional Psychonauts. Even though we could also ask ourselves, why everyone (except bob) agreed to a 10 year old intern lmao
First off, im so stoked these are back, secondly, I am SUPER excited for the psi king! I know he's probably a little ways off but I am very intrigued at what you'll find and explain
What a GAMBLE putting this out Instead of something spoiky but I know you probably have something to RAZ-ZLE DAZZLE our scare senses soon 😃😃. Respect and keep up the epic work.
When I was forced to do the "death -> Triumph" Connection I was very suspicious and thought it would make her suicidal. I first looked for any way to enter the next room without doing this connection, when I've seen none, but managed to open the door, I instantly reverted it to disgust before continuing
8:16 i always assosiate the smell of gasoline with ice cream trucks, cause they had inefficent pipes or something. Every time i smell gasoline, namely in engines that run, i think "i smell ice cream truck". I used to say it to.
One of my weird associations is between Diablo II and a certain Metallica album. Whenever I hear it on the radio it reminds me of playing diablo. Since I used to listen to that band when grinding in the game.
The very last area of the first trip to Hollis's mind is such a great place to find lore in. You can find out a lot about her there by making intentionally wrong connections and not beating the level.
Hollis' Hot Streak is what assured me, yep, the sequel will be just as good ass the original. It was a fabulous way to conclude the tutorial and have a first real level. Love to see you covering it, great vid as always.
Not related but it always bugged me how this game starts by just bringing Raz so low from the bullying from the interns to the disrespect from Hollis to Razputin destroying her mind as if he didn’t know better. I understand that he shouldn’t have immediately been accepted into the Psychonauts and should have been knocked down a peg that way, but it felt too harsh when compared to how powerful and competent he was shown to be in the first game.
Frankly, I feel this was a referendum on the first game. It glorified going in and making changes to someone's mind as a positive thing. I think the writers needed to really hammer home uoe it could be a bad thing so they did it right at the start then backed away from the theme.
@@GamingUniversityUoG yeah I agree with your statement but the treatment that Raz was given were by people who didn’t know about his adventures. The interns specifically got on my nerves because it was shown that Raz can handle himself against bullies in the first game. Granted this type of bullying is different than Bobby’s but I think he should have been a little more competent in dealing with them. Again, being knocked off of his high horse is a good thing but I think they went too hard too quickly for someone who didn’t fully understand the harm he could cause.
About Hollis and Potts the way he looks when she is rearranging his mental connections, looks like a lot more than just a couple, it seems she wanted to drive him crazy but then regretted it, she did not rip off her clothes and run around after what Raz did.
Oh man! I can't belive I missed the last Psychonauta video! Thanks for nothing CZcams algorythm. Video's fantastic as always, can't wait for the in-depth CBT discussion in the next one..... hehe.
So quick question after the casino world are you going to start with Ford world or the other two worlds that are available relatively early on also I think the crew has said that post traumatic stress disorder is an important part to what happened to the psychic six
I love these Psychoanalytical vids of psychonauts mind stuff I definitely look forward to the Hotstreak one. Also I been having this thought idk if it works, but you can see the parallels between this and Persona 5...anyway imagine analysing the Palaces of Persona 5 Royal and their rulers. This could involve analysing theses questions: "Why is the Palace a ________" "Does this represent an IRL place?" "Why are the Shadows/Personas here and how do they fit in?" "Why does the boss form look like this?" "Does the background and stuff give a deeper look into the Ruler's mind?" etc etc. I myself have started something similar since I finished playing P5R. One such odd analysis I noticed is that all the places feel like places in a heist movie for example Kanoshida's Palace resembles The Tower of London which holds the Crown Jewels. Another you could argue is that Madarame's Palace resembles the Louvre which holds the Mona Lisa.
Perhaps the most important thing to take away from Hollis' Classroom is that even a seemingly sane and collected mind has problems under the surface. Her viewing herself as an ambulance driver can symbolize all of the enormous stress she puts on herself, as a paramedic is an extremely stressful occupation, one that exists solely to respond immediately to crisis with little to no support from others and with little to no warning ahead of time, and may be powerless to do anything on arrival. Given what we see of her mental connections during Hollis Hotstreak, this all indicates that she is someone who has, for a very long time, put everything upon herself, feels she has no control over her own life, and where failure is likely to occur due to circumstances beyond your control no matter what you do. A life of zooming from one crisis to the next where rest or respite is impossible because another crisis is inevitable and can happen at any moment. She has been this way so long that she just accepts it as normal, instead of walking a mental tightrope ready to snap at any moment. She is someone who, despite seeming perfectly sane, calm, and collected on the surface, is at all times a hair's-breadth away from a complete and total breakdown.
These videos are great! I was curious if you would be willing to play Omori and maybe make videos about it, there are a lot of videos out there on it, but I'm genuinely curious to hear what you have to say about it.
I went back and forth with whether I would do both in one go. But after 5 pages of script just to get here I decided it was better to break them up. Rather than a 30 minute video
@@GamingUniversityUoG I think it's a good idea. Like Loboto, she's got two different mind worlds. One based on her normal, logical, and protective thinking. And the other that's.... not.
Are the new enemies in Psychonauts 2 going to get their own more detailed rundown video? Or will they simply be covered in the same videos as the mental worlds they're first introduced in? As for the Bad Idea enemies, I don't think the concept was, for lack of a better word, 'personified' very well. If we get a bad idea, it usually doesn't occur to us as being a bad idea. The part where it blows up in your face only happens if we follow through on a bad idea, thinking it was a good one. If we think it's a good idea until it blows up in our face, how can its mental representation be an explosive creature? If an idea occurs to us as bad, we tend to actively avoid following it, which would probably make it more like a crossing guard with a stop sign.
"No, Lisa. The only monster here is the gambling monster that has enslaved your mother! I call him *Gamblor* !! And it's time to snatch your mother from his neon claws!!"
No matter how strong a front we put up most of us if not all of us have a scar hidden somewhere. Hollis is no exception. It is great to get some realness from a character who is otherwise a brow beater.
How do you help someone with a problem/addiction without projecting your own will upon them? Especially If they don't seem to want to change. Atleast playing this level I can look at certain activities & ideas with judgement & moderation, but that's because I choose to act on my own will to do so.
It is a hard line that a good therapist walks. I've seen several that project onto the patients and unknowingly guide their thinking. The best approach is to give then tools and information for them to determine for themselves the best route. Education over dictation
Whoever Dr. Potts was, someone should have told him that it was probably a Stupid Idea to Plagiarize another’s work. Now, he must be striped of his Doctors license for plagiarism.
6:06 How is Forsythe privy to seeing this in her Memory Vault? If anything this information could be conveyed better by seeing the Potts Method get popular and she compares it with her Work and is shocked in the next slide.
To quote from some modern day poets, - Everybody loves the perfect solution - To beat the odds against the poorest possible substitution - What you see is never what you're gonna get - Everybody's playing revolution roulette
Also are the Bad idea's we first encounter come from raz or hollis's mind? Because they appeared after raz admitted it was a bad idea, but also because hollis did what raz was about to do to her and those were lingering bad idea's from hollis's past.
( 3:16 ) I often find myself in the this moment whenever someone is getting canceled online ( even if was not a fan of said person ) because I'm always worrying how they're going to live the rest of their lives form the moment they're being canceled for. ( That and I'm worried of what to if I were to get canceled. )
1:05 On your device, i tloads immediately? Heh. On PS4, you have to wait 30 seconds, maybe even 45 to a minute. In fact, there's his cutscene near the end, the part where Sasha and Mia say "She's back!" That bit is 15 seconds at most, but the loading screen is 45 just to get in. *Then we have to wait again to get out.* it's so bad that the loading times may be the worst part of the game. As such, I say one thing: I envy you.
@@GamingUniversityUoG could be both. Wasn’t a big fan of this and Hotstreak because the themeing was off a bit. The only connection I see between the hospital, the church and the casino is money. Which make sense considering Hollis is in charge of money matters. But unlike other mind manipulations like Laboto’s level and lungfishopolis, it’s feel weak imo. Which is weird because Hollis mind is the only mind like this in all the psychonauts games. But that isn’t to say the level itself isn’t bad, probably my favorite one to play in and of course that weird but funny Easter egg in hot streak.
I usually replay the level and think about the concept for about a month. When I sit down to script it is when I do most of the research which takes a little over a week. Editing is another week. Especially for these psychological ones I like to really dig into them because I an concerned about putting out incorrect info. With videos on mythology I can pump them out since I know that stuff well.
kind of annoying that mental connections were really only used for forming thought patterns in the first level. after that it's just a traversal gimmick. it feels like they wanted to do something with it, but it would have been way too overpowered. pretty much every level could be completed with just mental connection if it was used like in the first level.
I think the main reason why you don't see them used like that after the first level is because Raz learned his lesson. He now understands how dangerous that technique can be and deliberately avoids using it to change people's minds. This wouldn't be the first time they made a mechanical or narrative decision for the sake of characterization. The nightmares you can find in the secret room in Milla's mind and that you eventually fight in Boyd's mind were originally going to be a side quest where Milla's nightmares escape and infect the other minds you can visit, and you need to beat them and round them up, but it was scrapped because they deemed it too out of character for Milla to allow something like that to happen.
@@GamingUniversityUoG She is to arrogant. Raz rescued professional psychonauts twice, he proved to be worthy, but Hollis just flat out refused to listen to him (by the way, Sasha and Mia just went ok with it and didn't say even a word in defence of Raz). And after that in her classroom, she was so confident, that she is so much better than her students, so she leaves them unsupervised in her head. We all know what happened next.
background music would help tone down the college lecture hall problem i referenced in my other comment. there's just no excitement or personality and the energy just zaps to zero right away like a 8AM lecture. the topic and lecture may be amazing on an intellectual level but youtube is for entertainment and you gotta put in a little bit of effort to keep up energy. the flat drone voice is just...hurting you.
i stopped watching most of your videos because the overly scientific voice is just so predictable and non-engaging. i just wish you talked with enthusiasm and personality. your videos are great and the breakdown and editing is top notch, but the ENERGY just zaps immediately when i start to watch. and i'm not trying to fall asleep right now. get some excitement or personal interest in what you are sharing - this is stuff is COOL and some of it is pretty neat! share that! the college professor thing is a cool idea but really - do we really WANT to replicate the feeling of being in a classroom?
The pace of my voicing is generally because I have a bad habit of stumbling over my words when I speak normally. no joke I'm a bad speaker irl when I get excited. So this is mostly a middle ground for me. I understand your point though. It is something I've been working on since the channel started. Come a long way in terms of presentation style since.
I love the little talk that Sasha gives afterwards. It is like he understands that Raz is not malicious, he just wants to leave a lasting impression on Raz giving that Raz strongly looks up to Sasha.
the only experiences raz had with psychonaut missions involved him going into the minds of lunatics in an attempt to make his way through an asylum.
it was all made up as he went along, and he decided to help the inmates/villains rather than harm them.
the only minds that raz has ever really known are the ones in need of "fixing".
i think the hollis level fucked up because he got too direct of a power for changing minds.
he went from fighting their demons to making immediate mental changes.
comparing it to medicine, i would say that rasputin was trying to measure nanograms of ultra concentrated medicine, rather than giving therapy.
I agree bluespirit. It seems like until he went to whispering rock he didn't have any social experience outside of his family. But yeah he really messed up bad here. I think it is why even though we have the platforming mechanic from mental connections in other worlds they dont have thoughts because ehe actively is trying not to do it again.
@Bluespirit that runs the risk of becomming a ubisoft tower.
Wanna get further into the memory? Gotta climb the to- i mean... make the mental connection.
It is too overpowered of a concept to be put in the game as something interns can learn.
The power to rewrite a mind to suit your needs/desires should be left to either the top brass, or the part of the organization that keeps the psychonauts a secret.
Sasha knows what it’s like to abuse your mental powers and get in trouble cause of it.
@@GamingUniversityUoG I didn't think about that. I always wondered why we never see Raz try to make connections in other minds like he did Hollis's. Even insignificant changes like, linking Socks and sandles, or cilantro with clean/disgust would have been neat to see every so often in other minds.
But at the same time, that power was something Raz had messed with and because of that, he screwed up Hollis's mind so badly he had to go in and fix his mistake.
That probably caused, a small amount of trauma to Raz, so Raz is actively suppressing that side of the power like how his mind created the "water curse" as a way for him to, in the words of Granny Nona "STAY AWAY FROM THE WATER!!!". All the times Granny Nona shouted that phrase, or even just mentioned the curse, probably just added to Raz's subconscious anxiety, for lack of better term, and thus, the water hand was created.)
I really like the speech Hollis gives about how the Psychonauts' role is to 'help people fight their own demons', because it mirrors the role of real life therapists.
It also goes back to the old saying of giving a man a fish versus teaching a man to fish.
Seriously Psyconauts are just therapists cranked up to 11! Also I wonder how a Psyconaut would interact with the mindscape of someone who is nerodivergent? Would they have to be more flexible? Well I know Raz would certainly be up to that challenge.
While Sasha was understandably upset over Razputin's irresponsible misuse of mental connection, he seems to also understand that not only does Raz feel truly remorseful about the whole thing, he can somewhat understand how easily it can be to misuse one's psychic abilities like He did when he read his father's lewd memories of his late mother
You mean the memories of Sasha being conceived?
@@Springtime562 something like that
It didn't occur to me on my first playthrough but it's amazing that Raz was even able to do this in the first place. Raz didn't even know how to make mental connections before entering Holis's mind and, as a fully trained Psychonaut, you would think Holis would know how to protect her mind from that kind of manipulation. In fact, you'd think she would be even more on guard than usual seeing as she literally had a bunch of kids running around inside her head.
She probably underestimated their capacity. Frankly I dont think the others would have done anything since they wanted to pin it on Raz.
But I always questioned WHY he knows so much at 10 years old. Only thing I can figure is he reads True Psychic Tales so much he picked up a lot of stuff through osmosis.
@@GamingUniversityUoG Raz seems to have different blind spots, habits, and intuition than the other named psychics. Most/all of the other pscychics had years of live, face-to-face demonstrations from uncloseted psychics to learn from-psychic-practicing family, friends, a psychic institution(s). Raz only had his books, maybe word of mouth, maybe his closeted sister, and his own secret experimentations to learn from until he ran away from his family. So, Raz had less references to compare his methods to and results to, less supervision and tradition manipulating how he experimented and practiced, fewer pressures defining what methods/results were “correct” or “appropriate” or generally intuitive or possible or “normal.” And he has a unique background-high athletics mixed with showmanship-where as most/all the other named psychics have backgrounds involving less demanding athletics, less showmanship, or no athletics or showmanship at all.
All that at play, of course Raz first attempt at mental connection involved jumping into the cloud as if it was a swing bar, potentially putting his mental-body in harms way. He wasn’t taught he couldn’t or shouldn’t try that.
High risk, potentially high rewards, potentially big problems, potentially new discovery and innovation since few people take high risks.
Maybe his technique of doing mental connection was more invasive or something than the technique Holis had learned, than the technique standardized. Thus, Holis couldn’t account for what Raz was capable of: it was her habit to assume he would use a technique similar to hers or other trainees.
@@AlwaysAmSam That makes sense, he's literally forcing his mental projection into her thoughts. That's got to be a bit more potent than manipulating them remotely.
@@GamingUniversityUoG Welp, Raz's brain IS one in a million, allegedly 🤔 He has shown at every turn since the first game to be abnormally gifted compared to most.
Plus, without getting into spoilers, he DO got pedigree!
@@GamingUniversityUoG that definitely could be a part of it. He’s totally a psychic geek.
It’s been a while since I have played but I feel like more than one character in the series has made a comment about his natural talent so that could also be why things come easily to him.
There’s also his extensive acrobatic training that influences the way he uses his powers. I think it may have been hinted at somewhere that Raz’s use of mental connections works that way because it suits his acrobatic style better. But because of the way he uses that technique he was able to access parts of Agent Forsyth’s mind that was off limits to the other interns. (Assuming the others couldn’t just levitate up there).
It’s important to note, that while Raz is changing Hollis’ Mental Connections/Associations between specific thoughts, small changes to the links for Death and Money don’t necessarily cause the “brainstorm” revision of Hollis’ world view, suggesting that elsewhere, these links already exist, but not at the same priority per se.
It is when Raz makes the non-native connection of Money=Risk that the damage is truly done.
Part two actually should be an interesting look, tangentially, at treating Addiction.
That's my plan. I had a comment during the stream of this game about how the technique they used in game to cure her issue is a real technique on testing gambling addiction.
@@GamingUniversityUoG what’s that? This is my second play through
@@GamingUniversityUoG by jumping in their heads and blasting the addiction?
I actually believe Hollis always had some form of issue with gambling, Raz just released it in full force
I don't know about that; all of the games in hot streak were rigged against her. With what we know of her history, I think she worked hard and diligently, but kept suffering from bad luck, building an inherent distrust of it. We do know she's fixated on money though; connecting risk with money lead her to pursue risk as she would money.
Tldr, I think before her gambling addiction, she was addicted to work.
@@billlupin8345 That's a big one as well. She felt like she couldn't accept help from others managing the Psychonauts despite how much it was stressing her, kept her distress about it deep inside, but ultimately felt like her efforts were completely in vain.
I look at it more like all these area's we will discuss in part 2 are bad ideas she has had for a long time. With the new way of thinking she filtered the ideas through the lens of gambling.
I think it’s worth noting that of all the mental connections you can make in that level, the connection from ‘risk’ to ‘money’ is absurdly long and quite literally requires that you bypass all the other ideas using a very winding route to be made. In other words, there’s no way that connection would be made naturally.
@@_Iscream Ahh! DoubleFine is so freaking brilliant with the environmental storytelling like that!
At least Hollis was fixed without too many negative consequences. I love this level in particular for showing us how fragile a human mind is and that Raz has been playing with fire for two+ games before realising himself, and even the players come to understand the magnitude of the troubles he just avoided.
It really is a good thing that Raz didn't know about mental connections in the first game. Not only could he have seriously harmed the patients of the asylum, he could have easily done irreparable damage to both Oleander and himself in the Meat Circus.
I liked this level because it felt the closest to psychonauts 1 in tone and design(this and Hot Streak) when I first saw the game. I gradually came around to liking the other ones, but HotStreak had so much of the humor and vibe of the original that it made me nostalgic, despite only learning about the series in 2019.
@@derpfluidvariant0916 Same here though. This and Comptons Cookoff had so many Psychonauts 1 vibes. The rest was just... there. I mean they weren't bad, but they weren't that freaky either. Like, the storytelling and the levels were just too soft. Until the last one that is, that one was freaky. And almost gave someone ptsd flashbacks to Psychonauts 1 because of that ONE section ;-;
@@Adeyum64 definitely. Psychonauts 1 drew me in with the amount of experimenting they did with level design. There were a lot of areas in 2 that just felt like a Mario level, as opposed to the inside of someone's head.
i fully agree! especially because when he messes up with boyd, it doesn’t wind up really effecting him. with hollis, raz gets to fully see what messing around with someone’s mind can REALLY do, and how dangerous it can be for everyone involved
i really like that sasha gave raz a talk to and even said that he doesnt thing the punishment/scalding hollis gave was enough, we often see protags do somthing really bad or fuck up for "noble" reasons and fix the problem they caused and it all just gets brushed aside wit hthe protag having learned nothing. hollis letting rax of lightly makes sense as she would of seen what raz did being near identical to what she did, it wasnt done out of malice but out of a misguided attempt to change to somthing. she was pissed but understanding.
I also really like that sasha didnt reem raz for it, he didnt speak to him like a child or at least it didnt seem that way to me, he spoke to raz as senior co-worker would to a new co-worker, close to but not quite equal if that makes sense
Honestly I love how this mind is basically teaching raz the lesson he should have learned in torny towers, messing with a mind for personal gain no matter how good your intentions are , leads to trouble , boyd is the best example ans while his situation ended well with him finally expelling the figments crated from his paranoia and oleander, ( although its never properly stated why this happens ) and regaining a bit of his sanity back, raz never faced direct consequences for this as it all turned out well in the end, hollis on the other hand greatly effects raz and from this point on in the game, not only does raz ask permission to enter minds but always consults the owner of a mind before he does any meddling (with the exception of *spoiler* but that was a very spacial case )
I think Oleander designed the manipulations he placed into Boyd to purge themselves after he finished his task, so that should any Psychonauts examine him after the fact, there wouldn't be any obvious evidence left of tampering.
Oddly enough, Boyd would still be a special case because he would have to enter his mind to figure out a way to convince Boyd to open the gate and Boyd would almost certainly never grant him permission.
I always thought the boyd thing might be intentional. Coach oleander wouldn't want a direct link like Boyd after being forced to cut and run, so if he tied Boyd's memories of him and the milk man persona together, after already making both so heavily disconnected from the rest of Boy'd mindscape, by cutting it free and somehow expelling these ideas and memories from Boyd, through a likely dangerous and invasive procedure, the last primary link would be severed. And hey, if Boyd doesn't survive... Well, the link is gone either way.
One thing I find hilarious that Raz is literally able to do what my friends called mental acrobatics. I'm not sure if it's an actual term but it's basically the joke how when things are complicated you have to really stretcher your mind or perception to get an understanding for the bigger picture or to figure out why a person is just "like that" since without the details it just turns into a lot of speculation. Lawyers for instance are usually trained in this because not only do they have to understand the laws AND situation they're dealing with but also know how to manipulate a crowd to make others see it too. But the truth is, it's just an interpretation because the opposing lawyer may also understand that same law but will have to argue it not just to the courtroom how *their* perception of the wording and situation actually work differently than the first one is trying to sell them. And sometimes that can rattle the first one if the second was able to not only dispute it, but maybe even get under their opponent's skin.
In other words sometimes we joke about the associative process and how going from point A to point B doesn't make sense but must take some mental acrobatics to jump to that conclusion.
But again, this is something most people are trained to do. Hollis is reasonably underestimating Raz because most kids don't have that kind of capability. Kids his age are often still developing these concepts of their own mental workings and understanding how the world works so she wouldn't expect any of the interns to even be able to make the first jump, let alone redirect the trains of thought. It's interesting too that even if Raz is more advanced in his ability to follow someone's train of thought because he can do these mental acrobatics, his understanding isn't very well developed because again that may be a maturity thing. He's still developing those social skills, and considering his upbringing, he may be a little stunted in that department to begin with. But he's learning and that's the important thing. He's still at an age where learning is easy because of mental flexibility.
Oh I've grown up around enough lawyers to know mental gymnastics. I find it funny as hell when my 6 year old nephew pulls those tricks. Mind always going along random paths but more often than not he's not wrong lol.
You might want to relabel this episode "Hollis' Classroom" since that's the true name of this mental world. Also, when we eventually get to Agent Cruller, you might want to make a short prologue video covering the five versions of Ford we first meet in Psychonauts 1. I've already come up with a title for it. How does "The Five Faces of Ford Cruller" sound to you?
I thought the in game name for this one was what I put? Into the journal that's what they have. Unless I'm crazy and my memory is worse than I thought.
@@GamingUniversityUoG No. I double checked the Psychonauts Wiki to make sure. Hollis' Mind is separated into two different levels, before and after Raz's mediling. It's the same situation, more or less, with Ford's Fractured Mind.
yeah its seperated, Hollis's Classroom and Hollis's Hot Streak
@@berdlyistrans Well I'm dumb lol. I'll fix it after work.
I always did love Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.
CBT always feels amazing, especially when I do it with my wife
Lmao
🤨📸
11:25
*mentions the acronym CBT*
My brain: 👁️👄👁️
It's not what you think! I swear!
Raz only had practical mental training before this so he really didn’t know any better prior. After all, the Thorny Towers inmates never gave him permission except for Fred who explicitly asked for his help. And the Whispering Rock instructors let him into their minds anyway as part of their lessons. Nobody taught Raz it wasn’t kosher to start messing around with someone’s thoughts the way he did in Hollis’ mind.
I didn't expect to enjoy Hollis as much as would going into Psychonauts 2, but she ended up being my favourite (non-psychic 6) character introduced in the game.
I could easily relate to the feeling of burnout, and stress placed upon herself as the second generation of the Psychonauts. That feeling being between two generation that seem like everything goes great for them while she has to take the brunt of the managerial work.
That and her learning from her own mistakes, by being a bit easier on Raz I really enjoyed, as you could easily tell where they were coming from indirectly altering people to help them, but the advice that people have to change themselves is a valuable lesson to learn.
Either way it was a great introduction to such a great game in a very unique method (i.e. the double mind), and you explored it in a very solid way. Can't wait to see what you do next. Keep up the great work, and have a nice day.
She fully understood the thinking that went into Raz's decision. She had been there before. And yeah I quit like Hollis. I know a lot of people who are rough around the edges but are the people you want on your side in a crisis. She reminded me of them.
"How was I supposed to know combining risk and money would be gambling!" -Raz, apparently
Great example of the shocked pikachu face
Raz: How would I know about that?! I lived at a circus!
Based on Raz's improper execution of Mental Connection, do you think that his execution of PSI Powers is fundamentally different from other peoples' because of his acrobat background? With some it's harder to argue this because a PSI Blast doesn't involve too much physical movement, for example, but with Levitation he bounces around on the thoughts like he's back to performing in the circus. I think that's the point, but I haven't heard it explicitly stated anywhere.
With his idle animation on the levitation ball being a balancing act, I can see how his style is influenced by his acrobatics.
In the first game all the other campers did the same thing though.
Haha CBT... nah but seriously great video as always! I really gotta replay the series... again! Can't wait for the next episode!
You heard nothing about CBT here lmao. See you on the next one.
Yeah, that's what CBT means *shifty eyes*.....
I’m surprised there aren’t more comments pointing this out
One thing I noticed that Psychonauts does differently with its Memory Vaults is they're a lot more integrated into the Main Story than providing additional backstory for the minds to help you better understand the Mental Worlds and brains. You can go through the Mental Worlds in 2 and still get the Backstories from the Main plotline to the point where it feels like searching for the vaults feels like retreading the information you already learned in playing through the mind the first time on occasion. Not always but even still.
There's another Point I have about the majority of the Memory Vaults in 2 but that will only be relevant for a later mind...
I like to think Hollis addressed how badly Raz messed up with Boyd.
To be fair, Oleander also messed with his brain. All Raz did was knock over dominos the shorty set up
Your Psychonauts videos are the best Psychonauts content on youtube. Thank you for your thoughtful analysis
That is high praise thank you 🙏
I MISSED THESE VIDEOS I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE MAKING THEM AGAIN :D
Part 2 of Hollis already in the works! Glad you enjoy these
It's crazy how much Psychonauts has done for me in the past couple of months, I also must say that your videos have magnified that as well. The amount of insight you provide to these psychological phenomena has helped me out a lot with changing myself for the better. So I gotta say, keep it up!
Funny, I recently finally picked up and finished Psychonauts 2 so this was great timing.
Fun game, the levels look gorgeous and creative. I also adore the drastic improvements to combat, where you actually gotta think out the fights (Until you got enough health to just tank literally everything lmao)
I think the only thing that I was really disappointed by is there is less psychological theming to the levels, only a connection to the character's history. No longer are levels like the Milkman Conspiracy with the whole schizophrenic symbolism, or Gloria and the lights that controlled her bipolar mood swings.
I suppose it does make sense since like most of the heads you enter in 2 are considerably more stable than the first one, and fits with the levels of the more stable individuals in the first game of Milla only having the one dark section tucked away but all in all perfectly stable or Sasha whose brain only goes out of whack due to your meddling, and being simply so high strung even in his mental world that it takes one jammed cog for the whole machine to blow at the seams. It's less wrangling together a mentally unstable mind, but more emotionally mending the person with 2
I think the closest 2 got to the more mental themed well.. themes I craved was Compton's Cookoff. With how fitting being easily over stimulated by sound and going into a panic attack from it translates to the high stakes high pressure gameshow environment, the too much sound being like boo's of an upset crowd.
But other than that, it didn't quite really hit that specific quality that makes psychonauts so special. I feel a little sad about that but.. it's still a solid and amazing game, like shit I enjoyed it enough I 100% it just like I did with 1.
I just hope that if there is a third installment, and who knows if that's gonna happen or nah since they kinda left it at a pleasing close but open ended for more exploration, that they do have those levels that are just a little more special in the way only psychonauts can be
There is also Bob Zanotto's brain that is about alcoholism and depression, Hollis' brain which is about gambling addiction (and probably anxiety as well, for the first level concerning her brain), Helmut's brain that is about overstimulation, panic and synaesthesia and Gristol's brain which is about narcissism. Ford's brain (technically the non-replayable section with the mirror pieces flying around) is also a hint to a mental condition, although I can't remember which. And the enemies this time also have much richer mental themes. The Panic Attack is a notable one.
Long story short, the mental themes have been preserved in the second installment as well
@@bigshrekhorner I guess they just didn't hit as hard with the themes, or I am too dumb to really see it as much
@@bubbadoo10 Nah man, I feel the same. The game just handles them a bit too soft, like it doesn't make it that interesting to explore. Funny enough, Compton's Cookoff is also the one that absolutely sticked out for me. It just has that ultra satirical vibe the first game had, and that's what was missing most of the time in the second game.
It also felt weird, that Raz always asked them if they can fix their shits. I mean, it certainly works for the professional psychonauts, but there is no way that this tactic will EVER work on foreigners. I mean, people with mental problems will protect their thoughts at any cost. Like Boyd and Gloria. So how are they going to change that in Psychonauts 3 someday?
@@Adeyum64 Yeah I agree that it does feel a little too soft. It's more of a light theming then a central theming a lot of the time it feels like.
That other point though, to be fair since he is dealing with professional psychonauts I think asking is pretty much a necessity. Since unlike Boyd and Gloria, they know when someone has hopped into their mind and can probably easily kick out someone whose in there without their permission. (With the exception of Bob since that one he did intrude without asking but the alcohol and sheer apathy to everything kinda leaves him not able to just kick 'em out even if he didn't really want Raz rooting around in his brain.)
@@bubbadoo10 True that. That's why also mentioned, why it still makes some sense for professional Psychonauts. Even though we could also ask ourselves, why everyone (except bob) agreed to a 10 year old intern lmao
First off, im so stoked these are back, secondly, I am SUPER excited for the psi king! I know he's probably a little ways off but I am very intrigued at what you'll find and explain
Same here
Probably closer than you think! By my records we have the casino world, compton, then Psi-King.
What a GAMBLE putting this out Instead of something spoiky but I know you probably have something to RAZ-ZLE DAZZLE our scare senses soon 😃😃.
Respect and keep up the epic work.
I'll be honest I didn't even realize October was around the corner lol.
11:28 Ok this video is fantastic and is an amazing in-depth analysis but I can't-
Lmao you're not the first to comment on that. I swear that pun was not intended and I think it is funny that accident was in there.
When I was forced to do the "death -> Triumph" Connection I was very suspicious and thought it would make her suicidal. I first looked for any way to enter the next room without doing this connection, when I've seen none, but managed to open the door, I instantly reverted it to disgust before continuing
8:16 i always assosiate the smell of gasoline with ice cream trucks, cause they had inefficent pipes or something. Every time i smell gasoline, namely in engines that run, i think "i smell ice cream truck". I used to say it to.
One of my weird associations is between Diablo II and a certain Metallica album. Whenever I hear it on the radio it reminds me of playing diablo. Since I used to listen to that band when grinding in the game.
@@GamingUniversityUoG cool
The very last area of the first trip to Hollis's mind is such a great place to find lore in. You can find out a lot about her there by making intentionally wrong connections and not beating the level.
It's a hot minute since I watched a Psychonauts video great job on Hollis!
I didn't even realize the last release for this series was July.
11:26 That acronym gave me a mental connection I truly did not want to have...
I swear I didn't know what that was until the comments came in and I googled it lmao.
Hollis' Hot Streak is what assured me, yep, the sequel will be just as good ass the original. It was a fabulous way to conclude the tutorial and have a first real level. Love to see you covering it, great vid as always.
Not related but it always bugged me how this game starts by just bringing Raz so low from the bullying from the interns to the disrespect from Hollis to Razputin destroying her mind as if he didn’t know better. I understand that he shouldn’t have immediately been accepted into the Psychonauts and should have been knocked down a peg that way, but it felt too harsh when compared to how powerful and competent he was shown to be in the first game.
Frankly, I feel this was a referendum on the first game. It glorified going in and making changes to someone's mind as a positive thing. I think the writers needed to really hammer home uoe it could be a bad thing so they did it right at the start then backed away from the theme.
@@GamingUniversityUoG yeah I agree with your statement but the treatment that Raz was given were by people who didn’t know about his adventures. The interns specifically got on my nerves because it was shown that Raz can handle himself against bullies in the first game. Granted this type of bullying is different than Bobby’s but I think he should have been a little more competent in dealing with them. Again, being knocked off of his high horse is a good thing but I think they went too hard too quickly for someone who didn’t fully understand the harm he could cause.
About Hollis and Potts the way he looks when she is rearranging his mental connections, looks like a lot more than just a couple, it seems she wanted to drive him crazy but then regretted it, she did not rip off her clothes and run around after what Raz did.
Oh man! I can't belive I missed the last Psychonauta video! Thanks for nothing CZcams algorythm.
Video's fantastic as always, can't wait for the in-depth CBT discussion in the next one..... hehe.
Gaming university: Happy world mental health day🧠❤
I completely missed it! Should have done something for it.
11:29 lets be honest, we know another meaning for that acronym 🤣
Shh... dont say it too loud lmao
So quick question after the casino world are you going to start with Ford world or the other two worlds that are available relatively early on also I think the crew has said that post traumatic stress disorder is an important part to what happened to the psychic six
I'm going to go basically in the order you visit them. So Compton / Helmut up next, then all the Ford ones individually, then cassie / Bob etc.
@@GamingUniversityUoG OK does that mean Ford tomb will be separate because that’s more of an interactive cut scene didn’t explorable world
Him: CBT
Me: _checks comments_
Lmao nooo. Dont check comments on this
Honestly Hollis is one of my favorite characters because she is really the only one that sees and understands that Raz is still a child.
As someone who stresses about work way too much I empathize with her a lot.
Let’s remember; Norma was the first to try and encourage Raz to do things
These videos are unbelievably relaxing a d insightful. Great video as always! Keep up the good work
Thank you so much!
Me after figuring out what cortisol is in this video: (him is cortisol)” I just want to talk to him, I just want to talk to him.”
Definitely worth the wait. Lovely video as always!
Thank you so much!
I love these Psychoanalytical vids of psychonauts mind stuff I definitely look forward to the Hotstreak one.
Also I been having this thought idk if it works, but you can see the parallels between this and Persona 5...anyway imagine analysing the Palaces of Persona 5 Royal and their rulers. This could involve analysing theses questions:
"Why is the Palace a ________"
"Does this represent an IRL place?"
"Why are the Shadows/Personas here and how do they fit in?"
"Why does the boss form look like this?"
"Does the background and stuff give a deeper look into the Ruler's mind?"
etc etc.
I myself have started something similar since I finished playing P5R. One such odd analysis I noticed is that all the places feel like places in a heist movie for example Kanoshida's Palace resembles The Tower of London which holds the Crown Jewels. Another you could argue is that Madarame's Palace resembles the Louvre which holds the Mona Lisa.
Perhaps the most important thing to take away from Hollis' Classroom is that even a seemingly sane and collected mind has problems under the surface. Her viewing herself as an ambulance driver can symbolize all of the enormous stress she puts on herself, as a paramedic is an extremely stressful occupation, one that exists solely to respond immediately to crisis with little to no support from others and with little to no warning ahead of time, and may be powerless to do anything on arrival.
Given what we see of her mental connections during Hollis Hotstreak, this all indicates that she is someone who has, for a very long time, put everything upon herself, feels she has no control over her own life, and where failure is likely to occur due to circumstances beyond your control no matter what you do. A life of zooming from one crisis to the next where rest or respite is impossible because another crisis is inevitable and can happen at any moment. She has been this way so long that she just accepts it as normal, instead of walking a mental tightrope ready to snap at any moment.
She is someone who, despite seeming perfectly sane, calm, and collected on the surface, is at all times a hair's-breadth away from a complete and total breakdown.
I don't know what compelled me to get this game last year...but I'm glad I did. Great story, I ended up getting every single achievement.
I just plated the game the shooting mini game were pain in the ass to complete
Nice!
Thanks for the video.
These videos are great!
I was curious if you would be willing to play Omori and maybe make videos about it, there are a lot of videos out there on it, but I'm genuinely curious to hear what you have to say about it.
TED worthy lecture. Thank you!
If I ever make it on TED talks I'll give you a shout out lol.
@@GamingUniversityUoG You will be too important and busy to remember such stuff 😄
This series should have it’s own play list
It does! ^~^
I was just wondering when this would upload, yesterday.
Perfect timing!
Make part 2 now please
I'm working on the script for it this week. It will be the next video uploaded once finished.
Can't wait for the next mind tho I see how I have to much Sympathy of Empathy hehe I always want to hold others pain myself
Next one is half written. You won't have to wait long for this next one. And yeah I feel you. Had something similar I'll tell you about later.
Who else can’t wait to see a video about psi king?
I can tell everyone is hyped for that one
Clever, your going to do a second video base on Hollis' hospital casino to discuss that changes it had.
I went back and forth with whether I would do both in one go. But after 5 pages of script just to get here I decided it was better to break them up. Rather than a 30 minute video
@@GamingUniversityUoG I think it's a good idea. Like Loboto, she's got two different mind worlds. One based on her normal, logical, and protective thinking. And the other that's.... not.
Loved your in depth look at mental connection, can't wait to see your thoughts on time bubble.
Great job
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it
@@GamingUniversityUoG I did
Loved this video. Looking forward to other psychonauts 2 content. ❤️
Next one going up tomorrow!
Are the new enemies in Psychonauts 2 going to get their own more detailed rundown video? Or will they simply be covered in the same videos as the mental worlds they're first introduced in?
As for the Bad Idea enemies, I don't think the concept was, for lack of a better word, 'personified' very well. If we get a bad idea, it usually doesn't occur to us as being a bad idea. The part where it blows up in your face only happens if we follow through on a bad idea, thinking it was a good one. If we think it's a good idea until it blows up in our face, how can its mental representation be an explosive creature? If an idea occurs to us as bad, we tend to actively avoid following it, which would probably make it more like a crossing guard with a stop sign.
It's probably because unconsciously, they know it is a bad idea, but are consciously unaware and still follow through.
@@slynthehedgehog8061 What about an idea that seems bad, but ends up being good after following through with it?
"No, Lisa. The only monster here is the gambling monster that has enslaved your mother! I call him *Gamblor* !! And it's time to snatch your mother from his neon claws!!"
I adore how behind the facade of a strong independent woman, Hollis is actually just as broken as the rest of the cast.
No matter how strong a front we put up most of us if not all of us have a scar hidden somewhere. Hollis is no exception. It is great to get some realness from a character who is otherwise a brow beater.
Honest to God the second I saw this video was up I shouted: YES!
Haha good to hear! Part 2 should be arriving sooner than you think
@@GamingUniversityUoG guess you gotta keep the ball or dice rolling🎲.
How do you help someone with a problem/addiction without projecting your own will upon them? Especially If they don't seem to want to change. Atleast playing this level I can look at certain activities & ideas with judgement & moderation, but that's because I choose to act on my own will to do so.
It is a hard line that a good therapist walks. I've seen several that project onto the patients and unknowingly guide their thinking. The best approach is to give then tools and information for them to determine for themselves the best route. Education over dictation
@@GamingUniversityUoG that's a helpful nugget of wisdom!
Whoever Dr. Potts was, someone should have told him that it was probably a Stupid Idea to Plagiarize another’s work. Now, he must be striped of his Doctors license for plagiarism.
6:06 How is Forsythe privy to seeing this in her Memory Vault? If anything this information could be conveyed better by seeing the Potts Method get popular and she compares it with her Work and is shocked in the next slide.
It is mostly what she imagines happened for that slide.
Any other helpful tips for being a psychonaut? 🧠
Always be stocked with Psi-puffs!
@@GamingUniversityUoG sweet, pun intended 😏, but isn't it dream fluffs & psi-pops🍬🍭, any other helpful tips or words of wisdom?🧠
Gambling with ideas, you never know which one is bad until you make the risk, right?
To quote from some modern day poets,
- Everybody loves the perfect solution
- To beat the odds against the poorest possible substitution
- What you see is never what you're gonna get
- Everybody's playing revolution roulette
DEEP
Psychonauts is the most fun version of therapy
11:27 🐓⚾🕯
Totally not intentional but I'm loving the feedback from it lmao
Lady got some crazy shoulder pads
Definitely a fashion statement.
I love this series!
Thank you so much! I'm glad you have enjoyed it
Breaking Mental connections with CBT! (Cock and Ball Tourture).
Well... I guess that's one way to do it
9:00 or when you have happy memories with someone only for the memories to turn bitter as you remember how bad that relationship ended up.
Also are the Bad idea's we first encounter come from raz or hollis's mind? Because they appeared after raz admitted it was a bad idea, but also because hollis did what raz was about to do to her and those were lingering bad idea's from hollis's past.
I'd argue it is from Hollis only because we are in her mind and we have never seen an enemy type brought in by a visitor
@@GamingUniversityUoG just seems insanely convenient.
I enjoyed the hell out her level, Hollis is a great character
These videos like a light at the end of the tunnel
Glad you enjoy them! I appreciate it
( 3:16 ) I often find myself in the this moment whenever someone is getting canceled online ( even if was not a fan of said person ) because I'm always worrying how they're going to live the rest of their lives form the moment they're being canceled for.
( That and I'm worried of what to if I were to get canceled. )
1:05
On your device, i tloads immediately?
Heh. On PS4, you have to wait 30 seconds, maybe even 45 to a minute.
In fact, there's his cutscene near the end, the part where Sasha and Mia say "She's back!"
That bit is 15 seconds at most, but the loading screen is 45 just to get in.
*Then we have to wait again to get out.*
it's so bad that the loading times may be the worst part of the game.
As such, I say one thing:
I envy you.
I was wondering whether you would do hollis's mental worlds separately or together.
The interns do not come off all that well, since they did force Raz into doing this.
The handling of the interns was bad in my opinion. Campers from the first game was a lot better developed
Through what now 11:30
It's not what you think I promise!
I’m wondering what the church has to do with her.
Possibly just a quiet place away from the din of the hospital to think. Or she has religious leanings. Not enough to confirm though
@@GamingUniversityUoG could be both. Wasn’t a big fan of this and Hotstreak because the themeing was off a bit. The only connection I see between the hospital, the church and the casino is money. Which make sense considering Hollis is in charge of money matters. But unlike other mind manipulations like Laboto’s level and lungfishopolis, it’s feel weak imo. Which is weird because Hollis mind is the only mind like this in all the psychonauts games. But that isn’t to say the level itself isn’t bad, probably my favorite one to play in and of course that weird but funny Easter egg in hot streak.
I love cognitive behavioral therapy
how long does it take for you to do these episodes?
I usually replay the level and think about the concept for about a month. When I sit down to script it is when I do most of the research which takes a little over a week. Editing is another week. Especially for these psychological ones I like to really dig into them because I an concerned about putting out incorrect info. With videos on mythology I can pump them out since I know that stuff well.
Let's go 🔥
Worth the wait I hope!
@@GamingUniversityUoG your videos are always worth waiting for 😎👈🏼
11:28
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia!
I remember some people mentioning this during my blind stream of the game yeah.
kind of annoying that mental connections were really only used for forming thought patterns in the first level.
after that it's just a traversal gimmick. it feels like they wanted to do something with it, but it would have been way too overpowered.
pretty much every level could be completed with just mental connection if it was used like in the first level.
I think the main reason why you don't see them used like that after the first level is because Raz learned his lesson. He now understands how dangerous that technique can be and deliberately avoids using it to change people's minds. This wouldn't be the first time they made a mechanical or narrative decision for the sake of characterization. The nightmares you can find in the secret room in Milla's mind and that you eventually fight in Boyd's mind were originally going to be a side quest where Milla's nightmares escape and infect the other minds you can visit, and you need to beat them and round them up, but it was scrapped because they deemed it too out of character for Milla to allow something like that to happen.
This comment is to help this channel in the algorithm.
I appreciate it!
CBT hehehehe
Would you believe me if I didnt realize what you were all talking about in the comments about CBT before I googled it? Lol I'm sheltered
10:06 awww race isnt bad 😢
Potts had a twisted little head before and after his connections got messed with
@@GamingUniversityUoG 💀
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy... what an unfortunate acronym
Agreed. I was so confused about these comments until I googled the other acronym. Yep I'm sheltered lol.
She is incompetent as the leader
Out of curiosity what behaviors do you not like about her?
@@GamingUniversityUoG She is to arrogant. Raz rescued professional psychonauts twice, he proved to be worthy, but Hollis just flat out refused to listen to him (by the way, Sasha and Mia just went ok with it and didn't say even a word in defence of Raz). And after that in her classroom, she was so confident, that she is so much better than her students, so she leaves them unsupervised in her head. We all know what happened next.
background music would help tone down the college lecture hall problem i referenced in my other comment. there's just no excitement or personality and the energy just zaps to zero right away like a 8AM lecture. the topic and lecture may be amazing on an intellectual level but youtube is for entertainment and you gotta put in a little bit of effort to keep up energy. the flat drone voice is just...hurting you.
Dude, what is your fucking problem?
i stopped watching most of your videos because the overly scientific voice is just so predictable and non-engaging. i just wish you talked with enthusiasm and personality. your videos are great and the breakdown and editing is top notch, but the ENERGY just zaps immediately when i start to watch. and i'm not trying to fall asleep right now. get some excitement or personal interest in what you are sharing - this is stuff is COOL and some of it is pretty neat! share that! the college professor thing is a cool idea but really - do we really WANT to replicate the feeling of being in a classroom?
The pace of my voicing is generally because I have a bad habit of stumbling over my words when I speak normally. no joke I'm a bad speaker irl when I get excited. So this is mostly a middle ground for me. I understand your point though. It is something I've been working on since the channel started. Come a long way in terms of presentation style since.